Wireless telecommunication carriers, e.g., Sprint, Nextel, Cingular, and other carriers, provide wireless telecommunication services to users using wireless devices by way of communication protocols, e.g., GSM, CDMA, and other wireless protocols. A user is a subscriber of a wireless telecommunication service offered by a wireless telecommunication carrier.
A coverage area refers to a geographic region within which a user obtains wireless telecommunication service from a wireless telecommunication carrier. Telecommunication carrier coverage areas are further divided into home coverage areas and roaming coverage areas. A home coverage area specifies a home region for the user, e.g., a single cellular region for a user. A roaming coverage area includes all other coverage areas outside the home coverage area. The roaming coverage area may include cellular regions outside the home coverage area on a particular carrier and may include cellular coverage provided by a different telecommunication carrier.
In order to provide telecommunication services to a user while the user is in a roaming coverage area, the roaming coverage area telecommunication system communicates with the home coverage area telecommunication system to determine whether to provide service to the user. If the user is determined to have roaming service capabilities, the roaming coverage area telecommunication system provides service to the user while the user is in the roaming coverage area.
Further, different telecommunication systems support different service capabilities. Specifically, different telecommunication switches provide different capabilities as compared to other telecommunication switches.
In another example, a roaming user in a coverage area of a different wireless telecommunication carrier may attempt to obtain wireless service from the different carrier based on an established agreement between the carriers to provide services to users of the carriers in each other's coverage areas. For example, a user of carrier A traveling in an area outside carrier A's coverage area may be able to obtain wireless telecommunication service from carrier B by virtue of an agreement established between carriers A and B.
During the time when a carrier A user is in carrier B coverage area, carrier B provides telecommunication services to the carrier A user. This time period is generally referred to as roaming. In order to provide such services to the roaming carrier A user, carrier B communicates with carrier A in order to identify the user and determine whether the carrier A user should be allowed to obtain service from carrier B.
Current carrier telecommunication systems enable carriers to only allow or deny user access in roaming coverage areas without providing more control over user access to services. Further, carriers may only allow or deny user access to the entirety of the roaming coverage area.